Over a thousand UK health systems have been compromised and are part of a data-stealing botnet, according to security company Symantec.

The 1,100 computers are infected with the Qakbot worm. This monitors compromised computers for information before uploading the data to Qakbot botnet command-and-control servers, said Symantec in a blog post on Thursday.

Symantec has alerted the NHS about the compromised systems, said Cox, which came to light when the company began monitoring two command-and-control servers in March. These are FTP servers that are also infected machines and part of the botnet.

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